City Town Info has created a nice infographic concerning women in science. While some numbers regarding income and representation may be bleak, there is positive news - more and more young women are becoming interested in science careers. The challenge is keeping this interest fresh by keeping science interesting throughout the crucial elementary and high school years. We need to make sure that scientists are shown as role models, such as those that I posted about at the end of last year.
Telescopes: Can You See What I See?
The Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering us images from deep into space for years. It's soon to be successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will be launched "later in the decade". The length of time required for testing is very important. The Hubble launched with flawed mirror technology that led to several expensive fixes while in orbit.
An example of NASA technology influencing things that we may use in our everyday life is below. From NASA:
For example, the optical measuring technology developed for the Webb, called "wavefront sensing" has been applied to eye health and has allowed improvements in measurement of human eyes, diagnosis of ocular diseases and potentially improved surgery.
The most powerful space telescope ever built, the Webb telescope will provide images of the first galaxies ever formed, and explore planets around distant stars. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Check out a video on the Webb telescope by astronomer Tony Darnell below. If you can't see the video, click here.
Source: NASA via @LaurenAlloyce
The Challenges of Science on the Web
Get it? Spider .. web? Yeah ...
Source: Quickmeme
The Science Online conference was held this weekend in Maryland. I wasn't able to attend, but NPR held a fascinating Science Friday show on the state of science in this world of blogging, social media, and traditional websites.
I created my blog to deal with two problems that I've seen with science reporting online: 1) it's too jargon heavy and doesn't focus on the common user and 2) it's grossly inaccurate. The following exchange between host Ira Flatow and Bora Zivkovic, blog editor at Scientific American deals with this:
ZIVKOVIC: When you're straight-out science reporting, there's really no need to include or allow inclusion of opinions that are completely unscientific.
FLATOW, Host: But we live in an age, at least in the United States, where some people, now, in the last few years, possibly politically oriented, say that, you know, science is just another matter of opinion, you know.
ZIVKOVIC: Yeah, that's their opinion. That doesn't mean that opinion is correct, either. Because unlike other opinions, scientific opinion has to be backed up by empirical information, by empirical data, and it's a self-correcting - at least long-term - self-correcting endeavor. So an individual scientist may have biases or opinions, but science as a whole is a way of knowledge that actually is trying to represent nature as it really is.
You can stream the show on NPR or download it here.
For more about Science Online, check out their Flickr album, #scio13 Twitter hashtag, and overall website.
Want To Be In Orbit? Run
During a Q&A between a Canadian classroom and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station (seriously, just think about how awesome that is), one kid asked a question that I used to wonder a lot. At the 13:30 mark, he asks:
"Why does the space station have to travel so fast"?
As a kid could understand moving at a high speed to leave the Earth, because I could never launch my Hot Wheels into orbit no matter how hard I threw them. But why would you need the speed when you're already in space? Don't you just float and hang out?
Chris gives a great answer. The space station stays in orbit only because it's going fast - 500 km / minute to be precise!
Chris then gives the example of jumping off of a roof. Obviously gravity brings you back down. The faster you run on the roof, the further you'll travel forward but gravity will still bring you down.
Now, imagine that you were able to run as fast as the space station - 500 km / min. You'd fly off the roof, and as gravity begins to bring you down the Earth would be curving below you. This is essentially what being in "orbit" means - your'e going fast enough that you cancel out the "pull down" effect of gravity .
All of Earth's satellites are in free fall An added bonus is that if you are inside of an object in free fall, you are weightless - hence why Chris is floating about in the video below.
If you can't see the video below, click here. Remember to skip to the 13:30 mark to see Chris answer this question.
Source: NASA YouTube Channel
The Ultimate Science Fair? Google Me Baby
Google is holding its annual Science Fair, and we're all expecting to see submissions from the best and brightest. To support the contest, Google has released an amazing Science Pack that does an excellent job at explaining how you form a question and use the scientific method to test it. Check out a sample below:
A good scientific question is testable. That means you can conduct an experiment to answer it.
Avoid questions that are simply a matter of opinion. Don't pose a question whose answer can be found online or in a reference book.
Your question should be absolutely clear. The results of your experiment should answer your initial question.
These three points apply to many things outside of science. Our lives involve questions that benefit from having a structured approach to answer them. We're always "performing experiments" whether we are aware of it or not.
The best part of this fair? It's open to kids from 13-18, which is a great age to focus on. Focusing on a younger age could possibly mean less complex projects, and an older age would invite bitter cynical folks like me to participate. Yes, I would totally do it. In fact, that's the worst part of this, that I can't win ... I want to win!!!